Bass with a whammy bar??

i'll start off with what i mean by "whammy bar". i'm not sure if that is the offical name of that bar that screws into the bridge, usually on guitars (i've seen them mostly on fender strats). when you hold a note you can wiggle the bar and get a cool sound.

my question is has anyone seen a bass ever with a whammy bar? i don't know how it would sound on the bass. what are your comments and opinions?

There's some versions of a bass tremolo around.
The most well-known is the Kahler bass tremolo. I don't who produces it right now or if it's still in production at all. Although I just saw a Warwick custom in a German magazine with a Kahler. The upgrade for it is 500$ though.

Japanese manufacturer Tune used to offer a bass with a tremolo where you even could detune individual string. Tune went out of business though.

Les Claypool has a Carl Thompson with a Kahler Whammy, Victor Wooten has a Fodera eqipped with one.

Don't expect too much of the Kahler tough. You have to handle it like a vintage tremolo. Only slight detuning, or the strings will not hold their original tuning or they might even snap. No divebombs like with a Floyd Rose.

I can think of three players' who used basses with whammy bars. Victor Wooten has a whammy bar on one of his basses (Must be a Fodera). There was a bass player who was popular in guitar mags named Randy Coven who had a bass with a whammy bar. And I've seen a Japanese bassist by the name of Yoshihiro Naruse of Japanese fusion band, Casiopea use an 8-string bass with a whammy bar. The bass was made by a company called Tune.

These instruments are either custom made or a signature series, and at least in the case of the Fodera and the Tune, are not cheap. Plus I've never seen a bass with a whammy bar in a store, except for the Naruse signature model in a store in Tokyo. You can try to look for information on these players or the companies. You can always try to seek out someone who can install a whammy bar on your bass, but I have no idea about the cost or who does such a thing. As far as the whammy bar being used in the music, I've only heard it as a little effect in a solo. Like I heard Victor let some harmonics ring out and hit the whammy bar.

There's always the venerable Fender Bass VI, but that's probably not what you're looking for. An excellent twangy bass for the right application. The originals, built from '61 or '62, are $$$$$, but the MIJ reissues go for around $900 - $1200 on that eBay thingy.

A dude I used to know in high school had a Vox 4-string fretless bass with a tremelo on it. He couldn't play that bass if his life depended on it. I should have taken it from him.. oh well. It was neat looking though

i have a kahler trem on my music man.i love the thing you just need to know how to set the tunning .i tune the g to e much easyer.let me reput that i tuen the g sting then the d then the a then the e. then re tune and its normale set.is goes slighly out of tune you wount brake string unless you pull up.if you got to www.ctbasses.com you can get a link to a web site were they sell them porkk some thing.

I don't mean to flame... But the metal bar attached to the bridge isn't anything. You need to find a floating bridge, after you find one of them, all you'll need is to buy the actual bar, which you can buy at almost any music store.

I know a guy with a Whammy equipped Ibanez.I dont know what series it is.He has another bass(Jazz) he gigs with,He told his wife he wanted to get a fretless.For his birthday,she snuck it out from under his bed,brought it to a music store and had it converted to fretless,Suprize!.Now its kind of a "double whammy"! Yuch! yuch!
Rather than go thru trying to find one and dealing with the out of tune crap,why dont you just get a fretless and practice.My bud with the ibanez had the bridge"locked in place" to avoid the inevitable hassles

<img src="http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=1174383&a=8647027&p=43291610">
It's hard to see because my hand is over it, but my G&L L-2000 came stock w/a Kahler tremolo. I bought it second hand & I never had the trem arm. I since found an original G&L bridge & removed the Kahler. I was gonna throw it away but deceided to hold on to it. I ended up selling the bridge for <b>$200</b> to BenjaminTowle (or whatever his name is). Just goes to show you one mans trash is another mans treasure!!!

Originally posted by CrawlingEye I don't mean to flame... But the metal bar attached to the bridge isn't anything. You need to find a floating bridge, after you find one of them, all you'll need is to buy the actual bar, which you can buy at almost any music store.

Click to expand...

It does have a floating bridge.
A simple suggestion....check it out BEFORE you comment.

Why would a company market just a metal bar that couldnt move the bridge? Is that what you thought they were doing?

It does have a floating bridge.
A simple suggestion....check it out BEFORE you comment.

Why would a company market just a metal bar that couldnt move the bridge? Is that what you thought they were doing?

Click to expand...

A suggestion for you. Check out guitars, almost any guitar bridge can hold a whammy bar on it. Although, a lot don't have floating bridges. I'm sure it's to make beginniners think it can actually be used.

A suggestion for you. Check out guitars, almost any guitar bridge can hold a whammy bar on it. Although, a lot don't have floating bridges. I'm sure it's to make beginniners think it can actually be used.

Take your own advice.

Click to expand...

OK, ive NEVER seen this, show me a guitar with a metal bar and no floating bridge.

Crawling Eye, a trem on a guitar will have little effect if you don't have the bridge floating. My strat (and any other guitar that comes with a trem) comes with a floating bridge. I decided to make my bridge flat and not use the trem, but if I wanted to use it I'd have to make it floating.